A Mackay-based surgeon has told a coronial inquest he was “very, very upset” that nurses waited almost an hour to call him after his patient went into cardiac arrest following thyroid surgery.<\/p>\n
Robyn Ann Beale died less than 24 hours after a hemithyroidectomy at Mater Private Hospital Mackay (MPHM) in August 2021.<\/p>\n
An inquest in Mackay Coroner’s Court is this week investigating the circumstances surrounding Mrs Beale’s death.<\/p>\n
On Monday, the first day of the inquest, general surgeon William Fitzgerald told Coroner Carol Lee that Mrs Beale suffered a cardiac arrest the morning after the surgery in which half her thyroid was removed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
William Cody Fitzgerald (centre) told the court he had not done a thyroidectomy since October 2021. (ABC Tropical North: Liam O’Connell)<\/p>\n
The inquest will examine whether the hospital staff’s care was adequate and appropriate, and if staff had the skills to detect and manage a bleeding complication.<\/p>\n
It will also investigate whether any aspect of the treatment and management provided to Mrs Beale at MPHM caused or hastened her death.<\/p>\n
Surgeon recalls a harrowing night<\/p>\n
The court heard Mrs Beale had been referred to Dr Fitzgerald for assessment of a significantly enlarged thyroid gland in 2021.<\/p>\n
Dr Fitzgerald said there had been no significant bleeding or concern when he concluded surgery on Mrs Beale around 4pm on August 2, 2021.<\/p>\n
The coroner heard that at 1:40am the following day, Mrs Beale “suddenly deteriorated” and told a nurse she could not breathe.<\/p>\n
Dr Fitzgerald told the coroner he received a call at 2:38am and was told his patient was in cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n
He returned to hospital, reopened the surgical wound and used his hands to remove a blood clot that was compressing her windpipe.<\/p>\n
However, he said a lack of oxygen prior to this procedure may have caused brain damage.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Robyn Beale had half of her thyroid removed in August 2021. (ABC Tropical North: Liam O’Connell)<\/p>\n
An on-duty doctor had also successfully inserted a breathing tube.<\/p>\n
Mrs Beale underwent emergency surgery at the MPHM before she was transferred to Mackay Base Hospital.<\/p>\n
She died later that morning.<\/p>\n
Dr Fitzgerald said he was “very, very upset” that he was not notified Mrs Beale was having trouble breathing, and that the delay was a major concern for him after her death.<\/p>\n
Skills called into question<\/p>\n
Barrister and counsel assisting the coroner David Schneidewin questioned whether Dr Fitzgerald had been adequately skilled to undertake the thyroid surgery.<\/p>\n
The coroner heard the general surgeon had not conducted a thyroid surgery since October 2020.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Robyn Beale suffered complications after surgery at Mater Private Hospital Mackay. (ABC Tropical North: Liam O’Connell)<\/p>\n
Dr Fitzgerald told the coroner while he had completed fewer thyroid surgeries since 2018, he had undertaken the operation 200 to 300 times in his 26-year career and had sufficient skill.<\/p>\n
Several members of Mrs Beale’s family were in attendance for the first day of the inquest.<\/p>\n
The proceedings will resume on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Mackay-based surgeon has told a coronial inquest he was “very, very upset” that nurses waited almost an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,69779,38880,69778,37795,11226,69777,69776],"class_list":["post-94400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-coroner-carol-lee","tag-coroners-court","tag-dr-william-cody-fitzgerald","tag-inquest","tag-mackay","tag-mater-hospital","tag-robyn-beale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}